La maison de Mireille: Maison typiquement Arlésienne
Once you opened the bright blue door to House Mireille, you were met by a comfortable setting (with good heating), in which we quickly made ourselves at home. The ground floor had a seating area, a small desk with computer (damn French keyboard), and broadband TV (with several English speaking channels, including CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC, and NHK, which we frequently watched). The dining area was off the kitchen, with an antique stone sink and huge stove and oven, along with all the amenities (such as a fancy microwave), great for cooking sausages and duck breast.
I've had several friends ask me how to find these wonderful places to stay. There are several websites I use, but one of my favorites is called HomeAway.co.uk, which listed dozens of rental properties in Arles. We narrowed the list down to 12 choices, emailed each owner about cost and availability, narrowed that down to 3, then chose House Mireille. At Christmas (the off-season), we rented this 3-floor house (2 bedrooms, 1 full bathroom with shower, 2 half-baths, heating and air conditioning) for 100 euros a day.
Living
and dining space
Stairway
upstairs
At the top of the steep stairs was the first bedroom, a large room with big comfortable bed, a huge window (with wooden shutters), armoire, and chair. Just outside the bedroom door was a second door to the big bath and shower. Up a second flight of stairs was my bedroom, with two very comfortable beds, exposed beams, skylight, and huge window looking out on the ruins of an abbey and a garden.
I made a big "to-do" in my inquiries about heating, as I hate being cold when I'm on vacation. This house had heaters on the ground floor and in each bedroom--it was very comfortable. We were especially happy about that the day the Mistral winds started to blow!
